Scans_Daily

Bringing the crack since December 2003

Feb. 28th, 2011

Feb. 28th, 2011

Here we are with more Duck! You can never have too much Duck! While Barks and Rosa are the acknowledged masters of the field when it comes to Donald and Co., one personal favorite Duck artist of mine is William Van Horn. His work is currently not as readily available as it might be, and I find this rather exasperating, because personally, I don't think there's a better guy out there if you like your Duck stuff FUNNY. His wonderful use of language and marvelously (there's no other word for it) GOOPY artwork make his stories consistently memorable, at the very least. This particular Van Horn story, 'Heavy Duty', is rather interesting in that, while there are plenty of stories where Daisy turns Donald's life upside down, this is the only one I can think of where she does so without even REALIZING it. (It also paints a pretty vivid picture of what it's like to be around Donald when he's in one of his... moods.)

(A note - I only thought of this at the last moment, but there's a possibility you might not want to read this if you're currently having issues with gaining or losing weight. I personally think that the humor is broad enough that it shouldn't offend anybody, and it certainly isn't INTENDED to do so, but some people are justifiably sensitive about such things, so I figured I should put this warning here just in case - I don't want to spoil anyone's day by accident.)

I've started re-reading the Nightwing series recently and this scene from early in Chuck Dixon's inaugural run was interesting/cute enough that I wanted to share. Also cause of the earlier post about the current sibling relationship with Damien and Tim, I thought this would be a good time to do it.

Because feyandstrange was the only one who voted for it, consider this post a fulfillment of request.

Spy and Counterspy was published by American Comics Group - publisher you may remember as home to Herbie the Fat Fury and Cowboy Sahib. The title was billed as a combination of intrigue and action (for boys) and romance (for girls), which was a fairly interesting concept. After 2 issues, it was renamed Spy-Hunters. together, the title lasted 24 issues, between 1949 and 1953.

Now, some historical background. The first issue of Spy and Counterspy was published in August 1949. The tensions between United States and Soviet Union have been simmering since the end of World War II. In the aftermath of the war, nobody was too keen to fight again, but the risk was always there. Only a few months before the issue was published, the Cold War almost turned hot when Stalin tried to prevent Western powers from delivering supplies to Berlin. And it would only be a few more months before the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea would invade American-backed Republic of Korea, triggering the Korean War. You can't really blame Americans for being paranoid, and boy did the writing in the comic reflect that.

I wasn't old enough to really remember Soviet Union, but I was still old enough to be exposed to its propaganda. I am used to reading stories about brave Soviet agents stopping insidious American spies who sought to sabotage the Soviet Union, steal its defense secrets and pave the way for the invasion. Like Americans, my people lived under constant threat that an evil foreign superpower and its allies would try to conquer us. Reading Spy and Counterspy, I couldn't help but try to imagine what the stories would have looked like if they were written from the Soviet perspective. And, I confess, reading comics with American spies as protagonists was a bit...disconcerting. I imagine American readers would experience similar dissonance if they read translations for Soviet stories I grew up

The first issue of Spy and Counterspy had many interesting stories, but ultimately, I decided to share this one for a simple reason - the name of the protagonist. Because a name like that is just asking for jokes and wild theories. Unfortunately, the credits were lost in time, so I have no idea who wrote or drew that.

Extras

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